Offenders in Scotland are now less likely than ever to reoffend. The number of people receiving second convictions, within a year time frame, has fallen to an eighteen year low. Reconviction rates have dropped by nineteen percent since 1998.

The Justice Secretary believes that this is ‘Good progress’ and stated that “These figures show we are continuing to make good progress on tackling reoffending – a key goal of this government’s justice strategy.” However, there still remains a huge problem with short term prison sentences as more than half of these offenders will reoffend within a year which brings to light to alternatives to a custodial sentence for less serious crimes.

Those who were given a community Payback order were less likely to reoffend with just over a third reoffending within a year. This Justice Secretary continued that “This is further evidence to back up our position that robust community sentences, particularly CPOs, are more effective at reducing reoffending than short custodial sentences.”